Bonds Thicker Than Blood
by azure orbis
Summary: A time will come for Tenten to be the shinobi she has always been training to be, and when everything will be shattered. But before that day, Team Gai is first and foremost much more than a team, to Tenten they are family.


Title: Bonds Thicker than Blood

Author: Azure Orbis

Summary: A time will come for Tenten to be the shinobi she has always been training to be, and when everything will be shattered. But before that day, Team Gai is first and foremost much more than a team, to Tenten they are family.

Disclaimer: No ownership here

Author's Notes: I haven't written in a while, so I hope everyone in the story is within _reasonable_ character. Inspired by the piano version of Tenten's theme- which is so sad and beautiful at the same time and should be officially released on the NARUTO OST.

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She could be happy simply watching them forever. She knows that isn't the kind of sentiment that her teacher would approve of. Instead he would scream, yes_ scream_, about her becoming the fully blossomed young flower that she can be, rather than hiding in the bud that she has hidden in since this team first assembled. It's okay though, she's fine with hiding, waiting for the perfect moment while letting her teammates shine. Her time will come. 

It doesn't matter that she can hit the same target hundreds of times and never miss; it's a fine, perfectly normal skill for a shinobi, but it is nothing compared to the second fastest man alive or the person who can see all around him without even moving.

To be noticed, good is not enough, you have to be a genius or be willing to work harder than anyone else. And to be honest, she wasn't sure she was willing to work so hard. She didn't think she could take working so hard and still fail to impress, to not become a legend, a rumor fearfully spread across other hidden villages. So, she sits and relaxes a bit, smiling fondly at her teammates, while they train to their breaking points.

One flips her a thumbs up with a blinding brilliant smile, while the other flips his hair and turns away gruffly. She doesn't mind, their extreme behaviors have become familiar to her over the time. She will miss the day when they finally go their separate ways, but she knows it's inevitable, so she enjoys the time they have now.

"Come on Tenten, join the rest of your teammates in the youth exercise!" Her teacher hollers at the daydreaming girl with a silly smile on her face. She groans, but smiles good-naturedly and gets up to engage in the youth exercise that Gai-sensei claims to have patented for its effectiveness.

"Hey Tenten, Neji and I are racing to see who can do the most sit-ups first. Do you want in?" Lee asks the girl with more enthusiasm that should be allowed at 5 am in the morning.

Nearby the Hyuuga prodigy snorts, "I'm not racing with you." Lee ignores Neji's comment as usual.

Tenten giggles, "No thanks Lee, but I'll bet that you'll win."

"Yosh! With Tenten's support, there's no way I can't win!" Lee exclaims before doing sit-ups faster than humanly possible.

Tenten shakes her head before proceeding to do her own at a more manageable pace. Neji silently exercises as fast as he can, pointedly ignoring the good cheer that has managed to infuse the rest of the team. He refuses to lose to Lee by declaring this an official race, but still wants to beat him, official or not. He is far too proud to proclaim Lee as his rival, especially since he refuses to concede that Lee is worthy enough to rival him in anything, but he sets up a gentlemen's race where the winner will triumph in silence and the loser will know crushing defeat, also in silence. In essence, no words will be passed but between the contestants themselves, they will know who the greater shinobi is.

"Now the purpose of this exercise is to strengthen the muscles of the abdomen, so that when you get punched there, your stomach muscles will provide some resistance and also give you some time to counterattack with your enemy is such close proximity. Of course, the other benefit of this, is trimming the tummy which will give you a slimmer figure. Mine is, of course, accentuated by my green bodysuit, which is perfect for training in any weather." Gai happily informed them when they had moved onto sit-ups. Believing that it would help to further strengthen the already-unbreakable bonds between the team, he did the exercises along with his genin team, feeling that he was still in the spring of his youth even as the small lines in his face and the occasional white hair unhappily discovered from his mirror reflection told him otherwise.

It is a most beautiful summer's day and Tenten could not think of anything better she would rather do than spend time with her team, even with all their quirks and faults. They are the large, boisterous, stoic and comical family she never had and being around them, made everything wonderful and even humorous in a way she had not expected.

Her knees, the grass, her teammates, the sky; all are blurs of green, blue and white as her head rocks up and down with the exercise motions. Everything feels so right, her muscles are warmed up and happily contracting and relaxing while she is surrounded by the familiar faces of those she loves best. And the day is absolutely picturesque with the sunrise staining the sky with brilliant colors, each blending seamlessly into the other, while the air is comfortably cool and she is happily warm from her exertions. It perfect in the way that it makes her heart ache at the thought as how the following days will always pale in comparison and yet, how happy she is to have those dear to her right here and all of them are alive and healthy. Yes, today was a most wonderful day.

Someday soon, they would be sent on missions and someday soon, sooner than she would like to accept or even imagine, they would not emerge from those missions unscathed and intact of limbs. But today is not that day, and so she smiles instead and keeps her count on the number of sit-ups she has done, while Lee and Neji compete silently and Gai-sensei merrily sings and gives slightly biased encouragement to his two prize students.

And then the day comes, much sooner than she expected and yet, not unexpected at the same time. Was it that long ago, that lovely summer's day that she was training with her teammates on one of Konoha's many green fields? All the clean lines and crispness of that memory clash horribly with the scene of absolute chaos before her eyes. Like the rest of her team-family, she is covered in dirt. And the rain that is falling from the skies, dripping from their cover of foliage onto their faces, cannot disguise the tears falling fast from her face.

Their teacher, her mentor, winces and almost surrenders to pain because an iron spike, the same thickness of her own beloved red fighting staff, has been impaled through his leg. The blood is everywhere and yet, not as much as expected from a wound of that size because ironically, the spike is slowing down the flow. The only reason he has a metal pike stuck in his leg is because they, his young, still naïve students, were too slow to realize the trap in front of them. And Gai, being the teacher he was, got them out of there just in time. Because of that, he was the only one to sustain wounds from that particular blast. She and Lee had swiftly carried him away as Neji stayed behind and guarded their backs as he covered up the blood trail left behind.

When they finally stop to rest and tend to Gai, Lee is silently crying and without looking, she knows Neji, who is beside her, is not nearly as composed as he would like to be as his hands tremble slightly, almost as if he is confounded by the redness of the blood. Their field training for care for wounds has yet to kick in and for a while, all they can do is stare at the spike, seeing the evidence of how close their mortality is and hear Gai's stifled cry, his lips bleeding as he bites down hard to not give up their position. The blood mingles with the rain, covering everything in red before washing away. And for the first time, the severity of the situation hits them all and Konoha, home and safety, has never seemed so far away.

They make it back home and although Gai would from then on, walk with a slight limp, he would be placed back onto the active roster within two weeks; a week and a half if he had his way, but after a furious Hokage glaring at him (complete with toe-tapping and arms akimbo) after he sneaked out of the hospital for some training, Gai wisely acceded to full bed rest. After all, with her monstrous strength, a direct punch from Tsunade would cause more damage than all the injuries he sustained on the mission.

Tenten breathes a sigh of relief when Gai has left the hospital and is as energetic as ever. It was not as bad as she had expected, this day of when their record of completing missions with no serious injuries is broken, and the important thing is that they are all still alive. Her happy teacher, who starts on his crazy regimen of extreme exercise the second he is out of Tsunade's range of vision, says little of his new limp and adds that nothing is too much for his cute students. Tenten says nothing and merely smiles as he and Lee debate the length of their race, betting which one of them can complete 200, then 300 and finally, 400 laps around Konoha first. To her left, Neji scoffs at their teacher's antics, saying he should take it easy for a while, but she can tell he is probably the most relieved out of the three to see Gai back to normal.

Then both Lee and Neji get injured. She finds herself shaking violently, her hands tremble as she administers to the wounds. It is not only the sudden fear that this is the beginning of the end, but the fear that she is next and she will not walk away as easily as her teammates do. It is only when they are back at Konoha that she lets the fact sink in that the wounds were not life-threatening. In her relief, she screams that it was because of pure carelessness and egotism that they got wounded in the first place. Lee laughs it off and Neji politely and pointedly turns his head away to look out the hospital window. Tenten supposes they're right, it isn't much to be concerned about, but the memory of it stays with her for weeks afterwards.

What if the blades were poisoned? What if it had hit a few inches to the left? What if-the thought is too terrible, but it is there- what if they never came home?

It is the first time she saw so much of their blood and she hopes against hopes that she will never see the lifeless bodies of her family-team that has taken to haunting her dreams.

The years and the missions pass with little incident. Injuries come and go, the team separates briefly for individual dreams and paths to be taken, but in the end, because she believed it should be so, they are reunited and all is well. Tenten prays that this- this wonderful balance of when everyone is at their best, or beginning of their ascension toward their best and they have yet to meet an opponent, a situation that manages to confound them and leaves them scrambling in vain for hope and a desperate desire to see home once more- will stay. Because someday, that will happen, when someone has completely outwitted them and they are out of options and chances, drowning rats with no way out and she prays that that day will come sooner rather than later.

Years later, finally, her time had come.

As everything was slowed down, she knew instinctively that the day she dreaded was today and that she would not see her beloved home again, that her eyes would not rest on its welcoming large gates or leafy grasslands and blossoming trees again. She fought all the more desperately, flying from branch to branch, hurtling scores of weapons summoned from her scroll and moved onto the next target, not waiting to hear the thud and gasp of her metal biting bones. A long gash appeared on her right leg, slowing her down just for a second, but all her training made it disappear, the red blood gushing freeing from the wound went unseen as she continued hurling her metal arms all around her. She went on, furiously running, jumping and leaping, the ill feeling of her stomach growing with every moment she wasted here stuck in the bushes.

And yet, she was not afraid. Despite knowing, for whatever cosmic reason, that this would be her last day, she was not afraid, at least not for herself.

She was all grace and deadly precision, a spinning hurricane of weapons and white clothe. Today, she would make a sacrifice, sacrifice her future and her life for him and for her team, but for now, she was kunoichi, a beautiful and deathly mixture, her blades singing shrilly in the air before her victims offered up to her their last living sound.

Cutting a pathway through the underbrush, she knew she was drawing close to his location; she could hear him fighting and could hear his opponents falling like trees. If only he could hear her, she would have screamed her warning. He would always see things as they were. Despite his special eyes, he never suspected traps, that was her job and separating the team was a stroke of genius. Perhaps they only lasted so long because they had each other to fill in the flaws and empty spots and together, they were strong, but without one another, the flaws were apparent and easily exploited. He was walking into a trap and she could not get to him. And without him, none of them would get home alive. Her breath gave a lurch when she heard him get hit, a sudden gasp of shock and pain. He was finally realizing now his peril and she was still too far away.

The bush gave way to clearing and she could suddenly see him in the distance, spinning in all his chakra like a glowing, swaying lantern in a field of stillness; his was the only motion she focused on.

_This is the end_, she thought as she sprinted toward him, feeling a strength she had never felt before flooding into her legs, propelling her forward.

She almost skirted to a stop to take pause and rethink, contemplate on the enormity of this day, knowing what she knew, but for everyone, she had to keep on going. So this was what it was like, to completely devote yourself to someone else, not fearing for yourself anymore, but for the greater good. Somewhere, out of her line of vision, someone gave a signal and she feared she would not make it in time.

_Please, please let me make it. Please, lend me strength to do this and be something I have never been before. He will never see it coming, but I do, so let me stop it before it is too late and we all are lying dead on this forest, so far away from home._

_…How I wish I could see Konoha once more._

"Tenten! You're supposed to dodge weapons, not put yourself between them and me!" She opened her eyes slowly, and looked up at his blank ones. He was trying his hardest to remain stoic, remain faithful to the code of shinobi he tried so hard to uphold, but the cracks in his voice were more telling than if he were crying and beating his fists against the earth. Tenten smiled, it didn't hurt so much, only a little when she drew breath.

"I know, but you didn't see it coming. Not your fault, it's what family does, Neji. It's what you'd do for me or Lee or sensei." She winced as she struggled to get out the last words, it cost her so much just to speak.

"Tenten-" his voice was so drawn with emotions, before he brushed it off, going back to his usual calm and dead voice. "It hit your lungs, I don't know if I can fix it, but I'll try," he said, as he laid her down gently and started to pour some of his chakra into her wound. Even as he did so, he saw hers flicker uncertainly, it was a clear sign.

"I want to see Konoha again," she whispered softly, an edge of pleading taints the last of her voice as it drifts away with the rising wind.

"I will bring you back," he promised and carried her piggyback like a small child. If he imagined a little, he could pretend they were young again and he had pulled the shortest straw and had to carry his exhausted and often unconscious, sparring partner back. Just a little bit of illusion and she could be only sleeping and that the warm stickiness seeping into his back could be drool or something else insignificant.

Why did she do that? How could she do something so stupid? And the thing that hurt the most, how could she be so brave even when she was dying?

He could not shed a single tear, the feeling of anguish and anger at himself, at _her_, stopped him. He felt angrier still that he could not cry for her. Why? Why did she trade her life for his?

Her answer came back with the whispering breeze, _It's what family does, Neji._

She felt very light on his back, almost as if he was not carrying her at all, and in a sense he was not. He shifted his arms and her reassuringly solid body readjusted against him. To home, they were going home. He kept walking.

Neji noticed that the woods here were very quiet at the moment, unlike those around Konoha, which were teeming with life. Here, everything seemed hushed, almost as if the forest itself and its inhabitants were paying respects to the young kunoichi and her life. His eyes flared with chakra suddenly, a reflexive precaution ingrained in him years ago, to see what dangers laid nearby. Satisfied at the distinct lack of anything that would set off alarms, his eyes reverted to normal. He reached out with a hand and grasped one of hers, squeezing it reassuringly. Nothing could harm her now, not with him standing guard. She would be safe with him.

"Neji," Lee's soft voice, uncharacteristically dead, greeted him some time later, his face full of questions.

"I'm taking her back home," he replied as he walked pass Lee, toward a point on the horizon he knew would be Konoha. And with those words, the first he had spoken in what seemed indescribably long ago, the tears he could not feel before suddenly came rushing to his stinging eyes with the sinking realization that he was bringing her home one last time. Taking a deep, calming breath, he held them in. There would be time to cry for her later; now, he only had one thing to do now and that was to keep his promise to her.

Lee nodded and followed, feeling the pricks of tears in his eyes, but he did not want to shed them, for they were sad tears. He knew that despite Neji's ramrod-straight back and seemingly unshakable posture that the man before him was also fighting hard not to cry.

It was almost too much to bear for it had been a bad year, first Gai, then Tenten. Their beloved teacher's sudden death was a shock to them all. Gai's mission teammates said that the Green Beast saved many others with his valiant efforts, only to succumb to his injuries before the medics arrived. It seemed that Tenten had decided to follow Gai's self-sacrificing way, placing herself in danger so that someone else could live.

The one consolation was that now Gai had someone with him so he wouldn't be so lonely as he waited for the rest of his team to join him. Lee wondered how long that would be and to his surprise, he hoped it would not be for a while. Perhaps not endless decades later -shinobi never lived very long so that was one worry he need not concern himself about- but at least a few good years; a chance for Neji and him to go out and do whatever they were going to do with their lives and to use those skills they had been honing for so long. Then, a few goals attained, a dream or two cracked but salvaged, he would be willing to see his dear mentor and his favorite teammate. _Not until then_, he thought, but his heart ached, _I miss you both so much already. _

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A/N- Comments would be awesome, especially since I haven't written any fanfiction in ages, let alone Naruto fanfiction and it would be nice to see if anyone thought it was okay or not. Feel free to criticize, as long as it's constructive. 


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